Mount Bromo

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Malang

After a four-hour delay, our plane landed in Surabaya, the second-biggest city in Indonesia.  From there we caught a two-hour bus to the charming Dutch colonial town of Malang.

Our first stop in the city was the bird market where
Julia found this cute sugar glider flying squirrel she
immediately wanted to take home.

a beautiful city with parks and a big mosque in the
center of town

In the middle you can see how people get
their motorbikes up and down this
steep alleyway.

All the men gathering at the mosque for Friday prayers.
The street was closed off for parking.

In the wartime museum, they had a big IBM
cardpunch computer.

A whole store filled with cassette tapes!  Yes it is 2013.

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Mount Bromo

Where on Earth can tourists look into an active volcano?  Here on the island of Java, far on the eastern side is a area unlike any we have ever seen.  There is a big caldera with 3 small peaks on it, the shortest one of which is letting off steam.  That's Mount Bromo.  In the background is the highest mountain on the island, Mount Semeru, that also is a smoking volcano.

    We got up at 1 AM to drive over and watch the sunrise from above the caldera.  We sat in the back of a jeep bouncing around for a few hours in the darkness.  Our "tour guide" spoke little English and had only been to Bromo once before.  After the sunrise from above, we drove down into the volcanic sand.  We left the jeep and hiked up to the rim of Mt. Bromo to look inside of the steaming crater.  Then we drove around the caldera through the "Sea of Sand" and the "Savannah".

We caught glimpses through the fog every once in a while at first.

It was actually cold up there.

As the fog cleared, we saw the whole scene.

We went down to the bottom of Bromo and took a horse
to the base of it.

A short flight of stairs leads to the rim.

looking down into the mouth of the beast

just happy to be here

One part of the caldera is a giant savannah, beautiful fields covered in grass and little purple flowers.

our crew:  the driver, "tour guide," and us

some really creative hill farming of cold-weather vegetables

a short way away was Rainbow Falls

Pulau Weh (Weh Island)

This is the bungalow where we spent the second half of our vacation.  You could dive right in and see amazing sea life.

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Back in the northern hemisphere

Pulau Weh is a quiet island above Sumatra where we spent 11 days over Christmas and new years.  It's bizarre spending Christmas day in the ocean getting tan.  The vacation was so relaxing we fell asleep at 9 on new year's eve.

The east side of the island, a view down
from the bungalow.  The surf was up and
there was a constant cool breeze off the ocean.

We rented a motorbike and drove up to "Kilometer 0,"
the northernmost point of Indonesia.  We saw some
strange things.

There were cows, monkeys, 4ft monitor lizards, oh my
scattered around the island

Julia on top of the world, or at least Indonesia.

You can see Malaysia from here.

Julia made friends with a local warthog.

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The other side of the island

We headed west on a bemo to stay 5 more days on the part of the island that is known for snorkeling, Iboih.  It turned out to be incredible.  Rubiah Island was just offshore there, which made for a calm ocean and all around was a giant coral garden full of animals.  I wish we had had an underwater camera because it was the best snorkeling we have ever done.  We saw: 5 lionfish (each a different color), a couple of 4ft long moray eels, blow fish as big as footballs, sea turtles, octopi, and a lot of other amazing fish.

taking a ride to the other side

driving up to Yulia's Bungalows

The shore was lined with simple bungalows

Philip relaxing on the porch.  The "White Rabbit"
superyacht from Singapore was parked just across the bay.

We did a lot of just hanging out

us crowded onto a becak

Taman Safari

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Puncak

After hearing many great reviews of the area just south of us, we decided to spend our long weekend in the mountains.  The hills were covered by tea plantations and there were beautiful views.  Hidden beyond the traffic was a magical place unlike any we have been to.

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Taman Safari (Safari Park)

Set into the hills is a wildlife preserve/zoo.  This place has it all:  lions, tigers, bears, oh my, monkeys, pygmy hippos, zebras, giraffes, elephants, and more.  You begin by taking a "safari" through acres of free-ranging animals.  You drive for half an hour through different habitats getting a close-up view of the wild animals.  After the drive, there's a whole other area of the park filled with live animal shows and smaller animal habitats.

tigers up close

lions hanging out

a herd of zebras in the road

an orangutan family staring at us

Philip wrestling crocodiles

You can pay $1.50  to pet and take pictures with baby animals.

So we did, three times.  A beautiful White Tiger cub.

This is how we felt by the end of the day.

Into Town

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A trip to Jakarta

We decided, along with two girls from work, to go into town for the night last weekend.  Senddi and Ayu helped us navigate the trains and we made it to "Old town" Jakarta.  This is the old Dutch capital area.

It was pretty crowded on some commuter trains.
Thankfully, ours weren't this bad.  There was even a little
AC on most of them.

We enjoyed the colonial high life
while sipping on some cappuccinos.

Built around 1805, Batavia Cafe is one of the oldest
buildings in the city.  It overlooks the main square
of the old town.

wandering the streets

There is one Chili's in the middle of the city.  We couldn't
wait to taste some real Tex-mex.  It was a rare treat,
bottomless chips and salsa and fajitas.